June 2019 | Essential You Yoga

The Bhandas – Working with the Locks of Yoga

I still remember my first yoga class. I was at the Suwannee campgrounds for a festival, and woke up “early” (9 am) to practice yoga in the main field. Each time the teacher cued us to lift our hands over our heads, my eyes veered upwards towards the skyline of dark green pines outlined against a perfect blue sky.

This image remains imprinted in my mind, which is symbolic for what yoga has come to mean to me – a tool to reconnect to the nature within and around me. Each deep breath I am reminded to take in my practice, and each time I shape my body into a different posture, I connect more fully with the depth of the present moment.

In my classes, workshops, and trainings, I love to teach about the Bandhas, or locks, of yoga.

Working with the Bandhas can transform your practice by helping your body naturally align. These yogic locks can also prevent and resolve injury and give you greater access to your body’s natural energy within each posture and off your mat.

If you decide to work with these in your practice, begin to access them with your exhale, and release the muscular action as you inhale.

Alternatively, you might begin to pause after your exhale to experience more time holding the bandhas, but only do so if your body is able to be relaxed without drawing the next breath in.

It would be counterproductive to practice the bandhas if the body was in distress in any way.

Here are three of the Yogic Bandhas:

Mula Bandha – This is the “Root Lock,” and accessed by contracting the pelvic floor muscles.

Uddiyana Bandha – This is the “Belly Lock,” and you can find it by drawing your belly button in and up, as if in a J-Shape.

Jalandhara Bandha – Your “Neck Lock” is accessed by drawing your chin in, as if you were trying to hold on to a tennis ball.

All three of these Bandhas practiced together create the Maha Bandha, or great seal.

Begin by just practicing one Bandha, and then move on to adding another, then another, as you feel comfortable. Stop your practice if you feel stress or tension building.

Once you feel comfortable practicing your Bandhas seated, experiment with how it feels to practice them from your different Asanas.

How does layering on the Bandhas change your Downward Facing Dog, or your Warrior Two?

Yoga Citta Vritti Nirodha

One of Patanjali’s first Yoga Sutras tells us Yoga Citta Vritti Nirodha

Yoga Stills the Fluctuations of the Mind.

But what does that mean?

On further reading, we learn that we are ALL looking at the world through a viewpoint sullied by 5 ways of wrong thinking.

That means that the way you view the world, your friends, enemies, work, problems, loves, likes, and everything else first filters through these FIVE lenses of seeing.

The first is wrong-thinking – when you think you know, but you don’t really know what you think you know.

The second is mis-understanding, often the underpinning between disputes that is cleared when one takes the time to listen and hear.

The third is getting lost in Imagination (worry, FEAR) and then acting on the basis of imagination instead of reality.

The fourth is deep sleep, moving through life in an unawakened state, or, literally, sleeping all the time. (Looking at the phone all the time??)

The fifth is Memory, which is an unreliable narrator of our experience, as it changes, re-colors, and shifts over time.

How does Yoga and Meditation help? As we sit in the stillness that is seated meditation or move thoughtfully through a yoga practice, we learn to examine our thoughts as they arise and to look beneath the surface to get a deeper understanding of the matter.

As we take our practice off the mat and into our world, we learn compassion, because as we see our own mistakes and misjudgements, we can be more compassionate when we observe others tripping on the same stones that we did.

So today, my wish for you is clear thinking, clear seeing, and clear action rooted in truth, wisdom, & understanding.

Masculine & Feminine

Happy Father’s Day Weekend! I hope you spend some time this weekend honoring the energy of the father.

Yoga is a movement towards union – union of the breath and body, union of the sun and moon, and union of our masculine and feminine selves.

In our practice, we find this union by exploring opposites. For example, in a warrior pose, we press our feet actively into the floor as we extend the crown of our head up and way from our solid foundation.

In our Alternate Nostril Breathing, we breathe equally into the left and right energy channels of the body, seeking to balance the sun with the moon energy.

I hope that this weekend, you can find a way to honor the masculine, solar, heating energy you have within. This is the energy of action, the energy which takes ideas and imaginings and makes them manifest.

To embrace this energy, find something in your life that has been just a glimmer of an idea. Find a way to bring this idea into reality by making a list of easy, actionable steps, and watch your life become what you envision.

This weekend, I am honoring the masculine energy within, and the fathers among us.

Thank you for your practice!

Moksha

One of my favorite ballads growing up was Janice Joplin’s version of “Me and Bobby McGee.” I still sing along when the song comes on:

“Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose
Nothin’, don’t mean nothin’ hon’ if it ain’t free,
And, feelin’ good was easy, Lord, when he sang the blues
You know, feelin’ good was good enough for me“

I’ve really tried to live my adult life with this sense of freedom, and it’s manifested by living for years out of a backpack or suitcase while I worked and traveled away from home.

Now that I’m settled back in Tampa Bay, I try to bring that sense of freedom, or Moksha, to classes, offering a safe space for you to set your troubles aside and flow into the present moment on your breath and in your body.

It’s that sense of freedom in the present moment that inspires me to offer free events each month to bring yoga to you out of the studio and in the community, or a free first class to anyone who asks because I believe that the Moksha, or freedom from the chittering of your monkey mind, should be available to you regardless of your financial situation on any given day.

JOY is Your Birthright!

Have you taken time this summer for fun? It’s so easy to get sucked into the routine and responsibilities of life and the constant chatter of the monkey mind. Often, when you do create space for relaxation, your cell phone is still going off and your mind is on the past or the future, and not in the present moment.

The philosophy of yoga tells us that JOY is our birthright. It’s right there, beneath all the layers of experience and emotion and wisdom and stress. How do you connect with it? By taking a deep breath, and then another, and then another.

“The yoga tradition tells us the mind and breath are twin laws of life, they travel together. The condition of one determines the condition of the other….We experience the boundless joy deposited within the mind itself, which manifests when the mind is able to plumb its own depths.”

~Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, The Secret of the Yoga Sutras

Want to connect more with your innate Ananda, or joy? Try this pratice:

Begin standing, with your feet wider than your hips. Be sure to remove any long pendants or spectacles you might be wearing. This practices uses a 3-Part Inhale, and a Long Exhale.

Step 1: Take a short sip of an inhale through your nose, and bring your arms out to shoulder height.

Step 2: Take a second sip of inhale in through your nose, and raise your hands up to the sky.

Step 3: Take your final sip of inhale in through your nose, and return your arms to their T-shape, at shoulder height.

Step 4: Exhale with a loud sigh as you dive forward into a loosey-goosey forward fold.

As you rise up, return to Step 1, taking that short sip of air in through your nose.

Repeat 10-15 times